KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — Sailing enthusiasts around the world still race the small class of boat that Jan Hudec’s parents used to flee their homeland, floating across the top of the Adriatic Sea with a 10-month-old future Olympian on board. The boat was, and is, known as a Fireball.

Calling it a boat makes it seem grander than it really is; it’s a two-person dinghy designed to ride low in the water. They are made from fibreglass now, but when Jan Sr. and his wife, Vladi, ordered the kit more than 30 years ago — they had to build it themselves — it was made of wood. Leaving would be a risk, but so was staying in Czechoslovakia.

So they ordered it, and Jan Sr. built it, in secret, at his mother’s house. Husband and wife practised on a lake, just to get comfortable. They planned their escape from communism during a vacation in Yugoslavia, where they were allowed to travel.

Canadian Jan Hudec soars Sunday during the men’s Super-G.

Two days from the end of their trip, they shoved off, their baby, Jan, in tow. In a story he has been told his whole life, Jan’s mother had to bail water as they crossed to freedom, in Italy. They barely made it to the beach, but they made it. And, eventually, they made it to Canada, the name of which crossed the jacket Jan Hudec was wearing Sunday, as he retold the story inside the Canadian Olympic Committee’s temporary office in Russia.

That story, he said, led him to where he was sitting, and not just literally. Hudec has been struggling with injury for a decade, with seven knee surgeries and a wonky back that left him bedridden in January. He was in pain again last week — and was in pain again as he spoke, sitting on a couch — but he was also an Olympic medal winner.

Hudec won a bronze medal in the men’s Super-G at the Sochi Olympics, the first medal Canada has won in alpine sports at the Games in 20 years.

“In some ways it’s accountability, and in some ways it’s guilt,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t think there’s such a thing as healthy guilt but, at the end of the day, it’s like, ‘what are you doing with your life? Look at this opportunity that was given to you, and look what these people went through to get it.”

Hudec is 32, with short-cropped brown hair, the scruffy beginnings of a beard, and brown eyes that often twinkle with mischievousness. His appearance and demeanour remove all mystery about the origins of his nickname: Panda.

On a clear and mild Sunday morning in the mountains above Sochi, he crossed in 1:18.67 at Rosa Khutor Alpine Centre, the third-best time of the day, along with American Bode Miller. It was the first Olympic alpine medal awarded to Canada since the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, when Ed Podivinsky won bronze in men’s downhill.

Joint bronze medallists Jan Hudec of Canada, left, and Bode Miller of the U.S. shake hands on the podium after the Super-G on Sunday.

“It’s hard to really say, to put into words what it means,” said Paul Kristofic, an executive with Alpine Canada. “You work your whole life for this, so it’s awesome.”

“I don’t know if I would have bet on him, pre-race,” Canadian teammate Erik Guay said. “But I should never bet against him.”

It would have been an attractive bet. The list of surgeries Hudec has undergone during the past decade could fill a textbook. As someone with deep connections to the levers of power in Canadian amateur sport said, Hudec’s “body is destroyed.”

On Sunday night, while his back and knee ached during a lengthy appearance in the main press centre, Hudec itemized his surgeries. He has had seven knee surgeries, including no fewer than four complete reconstructions of an anterior cruciate ligament. In January, as he was working out in the gym, he slipped a disc in his back and was bed-ridden for days, unable to roll over on his own.

“You saw Jan’s great strength, where he can really pop an occasional good run, despite the fact he’s got really well-repaired knees and a really sore back,” said retired Canadian alpine star Steve Podborski, who is Canada’s chef de mission in Sochi. “He’s really been a warrior.”

Hudec joked with reporters: “They were giving out free MRIs up in the village, but I didn’t have time because I was already in physio.”

He does not know whether this will be his final trip to the Olympics, but he knows how important the medal will be to funding the sport in Canada. Hudec is part of a cohort of Canadian alpine stars known as the Canadian Cowboys, with Guay (who lost an edge and did not finish on Sunday) and Manuel Osborne-Paradis (who finished 24th).

As Osborne-Paradis said: “Hopefully, this gives us the boost that, for myself, Jan and Erik, we can all cap off the rest of our careers with some money and with some funding so we can achieve our dreams, as well.”

Hudec — whose son, Oaklee, will turn eight in March — recently opened an optometry clinic in Calgary called Bankers Vision. He has spoken of writing an autobiography.

“It’s a story of perseverance and patience and humility, sometimes,” he said. “The silver lining is bronzed today.”

sfitzgerald@nationalpost.com

twitter.com/SeanFitz_Gerald

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